In the text sent by the Department for Interreligious Dialogue on the occasion of the festivity, the desire for a meeting between the karuna Buddhist and Christian agape to work together to heal the wounds of humanity and the Earth. “Let’s work together for a more just, peaceful and united world”.
Vatican City () – The great vulnerability that humanity and the world are experiencing today calls for Christians and Buddhists “new forms of solidarity embodied in our respective religious traditions, to which we look to find ‘answers to unresolved enigmas of the human condition that deeply move the hearts of men’ (cf. Our Aetate 1)”. Thus writes the Department for Interreligious Dialogue in the message sent to the Buddhist world on the occasion of the Vesakthe festival that celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha and that this year falls on May 5.
The text – signed by the prefect of the dicastery, Card. Ángel Ayuso Guixot, and the secretary, Msgr. Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage- is entitled “Healing the wounds of humanity and the Earth with Karuna and Agape”. “The greater communication capacity of today’s globalized world – the two prelates observed – has made us aware that the problems we face are not isolated, but the result of tensions and ills that affect the entire humanity. There are many wounds that afflict the world: poverty, discrimination and violence; indifference towards the poor; slavery derived from development models that do not respect the human person or nature; hatred motivated and fueled by religious and nationalist extremism; and, above all, an attitude of despair towards life that is expressed through various types of anxiety and dependency. All of these realities painfully expose our common vulnerability.”
But it is precisely this experience that calls for the potential of religious traditions to offer “remedies that can heal our grave wounds and those of our families, our nations and our planet.” “Dear Buddhist friends”, write those responsible for the Department for Interreligious Dialogue, “you offer healing by embodying the karuna -the compassion towards all beings that Buddha taught, or acting selflessly as the Bodhisattva did, who renounced entering Nirvana and remained in the world to work to alleviate the suffering of all beings until their liberation”. In this regard, the message quotes a phrase of the Buddha taken from the Abhidhamma Pitakaya Vibhangawhich says that the person fully informed by the karuna perform this action of relieving suffering “in one direction and also in a second direction, in a third direction, in a fourth direction.” “Those who dwell with minds accompanied by compassion,” the message says, “offer an antidote to the global crises we’ve mentioned, offering complete compassion in response to pervasive and interconnected ills.”
“In the same way”, continue card. Ayuso Guixot and mons. Indunil Kodithuwakku- for Christians there is no more effective remedy than the practice of agape (selfless love), the great legacy that Jesus left his followers. Jesus offers his disciples the gift of divine love – agape – and teaches them to love one another “. To do this, the message tells the Buddhist faithful the core of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
“Let us strive to live with more love and compassion”, conclude the heads of the Department for Interreligious Dialogue, “and let us work together to build a more just, peaceful and united world. May they ‘radiate boundless love to the whole world -above , under and through – without hindrance, without ill will, without enmity’ (Karaniya Metta Sutta, Sn. 1.8). And may you, dear Buddhist brothers and sisters, enjoy abundant blessings and the joy of contributing to the healing of the wounds of society and of the Earth, our common home.”
